In order to explain the means by which the work and lives of those participating in the contemporary circulation of art – artists, curators, critics, freelancers – are organised, I focus on their fundamental dependence on a constant search for new opportunities, including side jobs, projects, exhibition offers, commissions for works, and temporary employment. In the article, I make the assertion that dependence on fleeting opportunities is a source of systemic pressures that leads to the spread of competition, the instrumentalisation of social relations, and the atomization and self-precarization of art. In the article’s conclusion, I show that a key aspect of resistance to structural pressures in the circulation of art is the contestation of individualized dependence on the ebb and flow of opportunities.